Does God give everyone an equal opportunity?

[The Unforgettable Fire]

To come to faith in Christ and be saved that is.

I happened on a video online the other day of Pat Robertson. I sat and watched it. When fielding questions from the audience, he said that people who do not get the chance to hear about Jesus will go to heaven or hell based on their conscience.

My question to him had I been there would have been, then how does that reconcile with this?

"then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:10-12


The question that Pat Robertson tries to answer with this response is that God gives everyone an equal opportunity. In order to do that though, it is obvious that one must make allowances for those who have never heard the Gospel. However when one begins trying to make those allowances, they contradict the verse above in Acts.

Jesus is either the only way or He isn't. If He is the only way to God, then we can't, with any reasonable intellectual honesty say that God gives everyone an equal chance. Some in the world live and die never even having heard the only name whereby men must be saved.

How do you explain this?

 

[mrhappy3]

I beleive their is a HELL - whatever form that takes - I say - ETERNAL SEPERATION FROM GOD....

I also believe those that do not get to hear..will get a FAIR HEARING..aka Romans Chapter 2.

Everyone will NOT get to hear...that is obvious.

 

[REPHAIAHPEDAHEL]

NO EXCUSE FOR NOT KNOWING GOD:

Romans 1:19-21 NLT
They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. [20] For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. [21] Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

 

[gideons300]

To come to faith in Christ and be saved that is.

I happened on a video online the other day of Pat Robertson. I sat and watched it. When fielding questions from the audience, he said that people who do not get the chance to hear about Jesus will go to heaven or hell based on their conscience.

My question to him had I been there would have been, then how does that reconcile with this?

"then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:10-12


The question that Pat Robertson tries to answer with this response is that God gives everyone an equal opportunity. In order to do that though, it is obvious that one must make allowances for those who have never heard the Gospel. However when one begins trying to make those allowances, they contradict the verse above in Acts.

Jesus is either the only way or He isn't. If He is the only way to God, then we can't, with any reasonable intellectual honesty say that God gives everyone an equal chance. Some in the world live and die never even having heard the only name whereby men must be saved.

How do you explain this?

I am not saying this is the truth, for there is no way of truly knowing, but we are told that when Jesus dies, he went and preached to the spirits in prison. The only way a man can be saved is through the shed blood of Christ, amen? So what of all those who lived before the death of Christ, and who had no opportunity to respond in faith to the truth? I believe that when Jesus preached, that was their opportunity and those who responded got saved. Why? God is a good and fair God.

Likewise, that is my answer as to those who grow up in a land without any opportunity to hear the gospel. Those who love the light will come to it. That same fairness can be a sobering warning for us, for those who are given much have much expected. Ouch.

Blessings,

Gideon

 

[Yitzchak]

To come to faith in Christ and be saved that is.

I happened on a video online the other day of Pat Robertson. I sat and watched it. When fielding questions from the audience, he said that people who do not get the chance to hear about Jesus will go to heaven or hell based on their conscience.

My question to him had I been there would have been, then how does that reconcile with this?

"then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:10-12


The question that Pat Robertson tries to answer with this response is that God gives everyone an equal opportunity. In order to do that though, it is obvious that one must make allowances for those who have never heard the Gospel. However when one begins trying to make those allowances, they contradict the verse above in Acts.

Jesus is either the only way or He isn't. If He is the only way to God, then we can't, with any reasonable intellectual honesty say that God gives everyone an equal chance. Some in the world live and die never even having heard the only name whereby men must be saved.

How do you explain this?

This is only a big problem for those who subscribe to extreme Dispensationalism. Which is one of the most destructive heresies to effect the church.

What I mean is Jesus has always been the way for all of history. Consider the question of how the writer of Job made it to heaven. He made it through Jesus even though it was before.

The error of Dispensationalism is that it teaches that Jesus is the way only in this Dispensation. So besides those who have not heard about the Gospel in this time , what about those who did not hear in the thousands of years before the New Covenant ? These include Moses and Elijah and Enoch and even Adam and Eve.

Also what does it mean when it says that the Gospel was preached to Abraham. It seems to indicate that although the name of Jesus was not mentioned , Abraham believed in the one true God and thus had faith in Jesus although he did not know his name yet.

Gal 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Gal 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

1Co 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1Co 10:2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1Co 10:3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1Co 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

The scripture says that if they had known Jesus then they would also have known the Father for the two are one. The same thing works in reverse. To know the father is to know Jesus. To know the Holy Spirit is to know Jesus. There is only one God. To believe in God is to believe in Jesus.

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

 

[Always in His Presence]

When given the choice between what a man says and what is written in scripture. I go with scripture.

I also believe it points to us, how effective are we at reaching the lost

 

[New_Wineskin]

To come to faith in Christ and be saved that is.

I happened on a video online the other day of Pat Robertson. I sat and watched it. When fielding questions from the audience, he said that people who do not get the chance to hear about Jesus will go to heaven or hell based on their conscience.

My question to him had I been there would have been, then how does that reconcile with this?

"then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:10-12


The question that Pat Robertson tries to answer with this response is that God gives everyone an equal opportunity. In order to do that though, it is obvious that one must make allowances for those who have never heard the Gospel. However when one begins trying to make those allowances, they contradict the verse above in Acts.

Jesus is either the only way or He isn't. If He is the only way to God, then we can't, with any reasonable intellectual honesty say that God gives everyone an equal chance. Some in the world live and die never even having heard the only name whereby men must be saved.

How do you explain this?

Paul has the answer to this in the beginning chapters of the letter to Rome . He ends writing that people then have no excuse .

 

[gideons300]

NO EXCUSE FOR NOT KNOWING GOD:

Romans 1:19-21 NLT
They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. [20] For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. [21] Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

Although this is true, and scriptural, we must take care to say words such as these with burdened, broken hearts and tears for their salvation. Because the same God who says there is no excuse for the lost not knowing Him saying there is even less of an excuse for those who have be forgiven and given much to sit down satisfied with a one-time, twenty-years-ago testimony that somehow insures them hearing "Well done, thou good and faithful servant".

If we who have come to know Him have no longing hunger for more of Jesus, with our eyes fixed firmly on the next world, not this one, searching the scriptures as to how to become living sacrifices as is our clear scriptural calling, I fear our sin-hardened and lukewarm hearts for the lost will come back to bite us deeply.

We must be fearful of looking more like the man in the temple saying "Thank God I am not like such and such" for such a heart is far from what God wants for His children. In the end, Jesus tells us that many of His children, called to the wedding, will simply be too busy with THEIR lives (and there is the rub, for we are not our own,we are bought with a price) and God will simply bypass them and ask His servants to go into the highways and byways and fill His house with drug addicts, prostitutes and those who have been steam-rolled by life and KNOW they need a great physician. And when those of His children who were satisfied with a grace that promised to cover all that lukewarmness finally saw others blessed and them left to their own devices, they will come wanting in. But the doors will be shut and there will be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Let this not be the case to any of us here. To whom much is given, much is required, free or not. And if you do not know how to live up to this lofty goal, TELL GOD. Ask, and you shall receive that your joy may be full.

Our call is to be living epistles, with the way we think, live, talk, spend our money, spend our free time, all pointing to the truth that this world is NOT IT and that we are not our own but servants of the Most High. If that is not happening in our lives, or even what we long to have happen, we need some eyesalve and new clothes, for if we do not repent and turn back to Him with our whole hearts, being spit out of the mouth of God is the next step. I beg you to hear these words. they are not mine. They are God's.

May God break the hardness in all of us, and make us soft, pliable and teachable. If we can but admit that after all our doctrinal expositions and years of churchgoing, we still do not know HOW to walk above self and sin, as living sacrifices, it is a great starting point. I am convinced God will move mountains to get to a child of His lost and far from green pastures. But we still have to bleat to let Him know we want to be found and abide in Him always, with no time off for self to do its thing.

Blessings,

Gideon

 

[fm107]

Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voiceb goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

 

[rockytopva]

Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. - Exodus 32:32

No.... God does not give everyone an equal opportunity. We are all given a different hand of cards to play. Some people have been dealt a better hand than others. We are responsible for what God has given us. John Calvin was an individual who tried to figure out the eternal security thing. He was better off leaving that alone, which is express property of God the Father. TD Jakes preached a sermon on this at Lakewood a while back...

TD Jakes - Ten Talents - Instinct to Increase - YouTube